Play videos on a 2-line character LCD display by utilising custom characters

lcd_video.py

# This script plays a series of still frames on a 2-line character LCD display.
# It requires a Raspberry Pi Pico running my uart_lcd application:
#     https://github.com/TollyH/raspberry-pi-pico/tree/main/uart_lcd
# Videos must already be split into individual 20x16 images of 1-bit colour,
# tools like ImageMagick and ffmpeg can be used to do that pretty easily.

import os

import serial
import tqdm
from PIL import Image

IMAGE_FOLDER = "Put folder path here"
SERIAL_DEVICE = "Put serial port of RPi here"  # e.g. "COM5" or "/dev/ttyUSB0"
BAUD_RATE = 115200  # Keep this unless you know it needs changing

print("\nLoading frame names...")
frame_names = os.listdir(IMAGE_FOLDER)
frame_names.sort()

print("\nPreloading frames...")
frames: list[list[str]] = []
for name in tqdm.tqdm(frame_names):
    image = Image.open(os.path.join(IMAGE_FOLDER, name))
    assert image.mode == "1"
    assert image.width == 20
    assert image.height == 16
    # One frame is 4x2 LCD characters (characters are 5x8)
    characters: list[str] = []
    for cy in range(2):
        for cx in range(4):
            pixel_rows: list[str] = []
            for y in range(cy * 8, cy * 8 + 8):
                pixel_rows.append("")
                for x in range(cx * 5, cx * 5 + 5):
                    pixel_rows[-1] += '1' if image.getpixel((x, y)) else '0'
            characters.append(' '.join(pixel_rows))
    frames.append(characters)

print("\nOpening serial port...")
serial_port = serial.Serial(SERIAL_DEVICE, BAUD_RATE)

print("\nInitialising display and drawing required characters...")
serial_port.write("\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#init 2 8\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#set 1 0 0\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#backlight 1\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#clear\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 0\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 1\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 2\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 3\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#newline\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 4\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 5\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 6\n".encode())
serial_port.write("#write_custom 7\n".encode())

input("Ready. Press enter key to begin animation...")

for frame in tqdm.tqdm(frames):
    for i, char in enumerate(frame):
        serial_port.write(f"#def_custom {i} {char}\n".encode())

serial_port.close()

lcd_video_sim.py

# This script plays a series of still frames on my character LCD simulator:
#     https://github.com/TollyH/LCDSimulator
# Videos must already be split into individual 20x16 images of 1-bit colour,
# tools like ImageMagick and ffmpeg can be used to do that pretty easily.

import os
import subprocess
import time

import tqdm
from PIL import Image

IMAGE_FOLDER = "Put folder path here"
EXE_PATH = "Put path to LCDSimulator.GUI.exe here"
INSTRUCTION_LOGGING = False  # Enabling this may slightly impact performance

FRAME_DELAY = 1 / 29.97  # For 29.97 FPS, adjust for your video

print("\nLoading frame names...")
frame_names = os.listdir(IMAGE_FOLDER)
frame_names.sort()

print("\nPreloading frames...")
frames: list[list[list[str]]] = []
for name in tqdm.tqdm(frame_names):
    image = Image.open(os.path.join(IMAGE_FOLDER, name))
    assert image.mode == "1"
    assert image.width == 20
    assert image.height == 16
    # One frame is 4x2 LCD characters (characters are 5x8)
    characters: list[list[str]] = []
    for cy in range(2):
        for cx in range(4):
            pixel_rows: list[str] = []
            for y in range(cy * 8, cy * 8 + 8):
                pixel_rows.append("")
                for x in range(cx * 5, cx * 5 + 5):
                    pixel_rows[-1] += '1' if image.getpixel((x, y)) else '0'
            characters.append(pixel_rows)
    frames.append(characters)

print("\nStarting process...")
args = [EXE_PATH]
if INSTRUCTION_LOGGING:
    args.append("--log")
process = subprocess.Popen(
    args, stdin=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL,
    bufsize=1, universal_newlines=True
)

assert process.stdin is not None

print("\nInitialising display and drawing required characters...")
process.stdin.write("\n")
process.stdin.write("#power 1\n")
process.stdin.write("#init 2 8\n")
process.stdin.write("#set 1 0 0\n")
process.stdin.write("#backlight 1\n")
process.stdin.write("#clear\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 0\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 1\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 2\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 3\n")
process.stdin.write("#newline\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 4\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 5\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 6\n")
process.stdin.write("#write_custom 7\n")
process.stdin.write("#raw_tx 0 01000000\n")

input(
    "Ready. Adjust contrast and screen appearance, "
    + "then press enter key to begin animation..."
)

for frame in tqdm.tqdm(frames):
    frame_start = time.time()
    for char in frame:
        for row in char:
            process.stdin.write(f"#raw_tx 1 000{row}\n")
    frame_end = time.time()
    # Exclude the time taken to draw the frame from the sleep duration
    # to achieve accurate frame rate.
    required_delay = FRAME_DELAY - (frame_end - frame_start)
    if required_delay > 0:
        time.sleep(required_delay)