K5 FW 5.x ScreenSavers Hack

[WGiant]

I've installed the hack and I have four photos I've confirmed each work individually as screensavers. I'm on a Kindle PW 5.3.4, the Kindle just picks one picture and keeps it as the screensaver. It doesn't cycle through them as time passes. Is this normal?

[NiLuJe]

@WGiant: Yup. they're called 'sleep screens' for a reason. The device is asleep, it's not going to wake up just to swap the image . On the next sleep cycle though, it should switch to the next image in the pool.

[WGiant]

Ah, I was under the impression they were screen savers and was worried my screen would have a giant snail or my wife's face burned into it.

[NiLuJe]

No burn-in with eInk screens .

[WGiant]

Thanks for setting me straight.

[jdubon3]

A tap to wake feature with the magnetic cases would still be appreciated It's amazing how much better the images look while illuminated for a split second upon auto-waking...

[jonnyking]

Hi guys,

Was hoping i could sort this out myself but after a full day of messing around (while at work) trying to get any screensaver working i give up

Kindle Paperwhite
Shipped to Canada
Serial number: 90D4 --------------
firmware: Kindle 5.4.0

Jailbreak using: kindle-jailbreak-1.8.N
python: kindle-python-0.8.N
Linkss: kindle-linkss-0.15.N


No matter what blank file I leave in the "linkss" folder i only ever get the 'last' screensaver.

ive tried "Cover" "random" "shuffle" "pinfo". when lock it turns off light showing what was already on the screen then maybe 2 seconds later flashes/refreshes then stays on what was last seen.

I am sure i am doing something silly wrong but cant see it.

Thanks!

JK

[NiLuJe]

@jonnyking: First, make sure you're using the snapshots, not the current releases.

Second, according to my nifty FAQ, that usually means that at least one of the images in your set is badly formatted/encoded for the Kindle.

[Akirainblack]

@NiLuJe Just a note, in your FAQ colour depth doesn't appear to make any difference as long as the image is formatted properly (I know your FAQ says optionally dithered down) I just wanted to confirm that the only difference full colour images makes is to the size of the file (plus it saves people messing with the images any more than they have to and thus degrading the quality), I've now tested this on my Touch, PW and PW2.
I'm also remarking on this as I've read in the past people saying that the images have to be greyscale.

Of note, if the images are full colour that doesn't mean they will display in colour, they won't as it's an e-ink display and thus only greyscale (It's the sort of thing my younger brother would ask)

[chipf0rk]

Hey NiJuLe and everyone involved, thanks for this hack, works great and was just what I wanted (and initially JBed my PW2 for).
The little note on dithering the image to 16 colors sounds useful, especially as I can see from the original screensaver images that they look a bit weird viewed on my PC screen, but perfect on the Kindle (while a few of my own images look just slightly poor on the Kindle); so I'd like to try that.
Is there any simple way to do this, e.g. a ImageMagick command or a tool that can do this? I looked around for a bit and wasn't really able to find anything.

Thanks in advance!

[Akirainblack]

@chipf0rk I believe you can do a batch conversion in IrfanView.
Also IIRR (and it's been a while) Jackie's Copy cover to device should be able to do it from Calibre. Although the latter was just from colour to greyscale.

[NiLuJe]

@Akirainblack: It matters (in some circumstances) for the K2/3/4 version of the hack, so for the sake of simplicity, and because it's a good habit to take, I unified the FAQ on that point .

The *other* difference is, of course, quality: if you feed the Kindle a full-color image (or a full 8-bit grayscale image for that matter), the dithering will be done by the hardware, and it's a crappy, crappy dithering (fast, but crappy) compared to what any good decent image processing software will do.

@chipf0rk: Yup, ImageMagick would be good, that's what the cover mode uses .

You'll need the colormap, which you can rip from the hack (linkss/etc/kindle_colors.gif).

Scaling+Dithering:

convert in.jpg -filter LanczosSharp -resize 758x1024 -background black -gravity center -extent 758x1024 -colorspace Gray -dither FloydSteinberg -remap kindle_colors.gif -define png:bit-depth=8 -quality 75 out.png

And in case it isn't clear, the scaling part:

-filter LanczosSharp -resize 758x1024 -background black -gravity center -extent 758x1024

And the dithering part:

-colorspace Gray -dither FloydSteinberg -remap kindle_colors.gif -define png:bit-depth=8

Script that to loop around whatever your want in your favorite scripting language, and boom.

[chesterek15]

Hi.
I have 2 blank files in linkss folder. auto & mounted_ss
In screensavers folder i have 3 files 758x1024 resolution in greyscale, *.png.
When i restart my kindle when is blocked I see list of my books ( my home screan). Why I don't see my screensavers?

[NiLuJe]

@chesterek15:

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

according to my nifty FAQ, that usually means that at least one of the images in your set is badly formatted/encoded for the Kindle.

[jonnyking]

Hi NiLuJe,

snapshots... new to kindle world. didnt realise i had a PW2 rather than a normal PW.

all is working sweet. Thanks! now to see if Kual can be added

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@jonnyking: First, make sure you're using the snapshots, not the current releases.

Second, according to my nifty FAQ, that usually means that at least one of the images in your set is badly formatted/encoded for the Kindle.