v1.1.0

Image Download Links Below

• Instructions
• IMG can be used for Raspberry Pi 3+
• For Raspberry Pi 2, follow the manual installation instructions as Trixie 13 Lite 32-bit is required

[1.1.0]

Added

• GPU memory introspection — DisplayBackend.gpu_memory_info() and
  flush_gpu() methods. Pi3dBackend reads vcgencmd get_mem and
  DRM bo_stats debugfs for V3D buffer object counts and heap usage.
  Periodic GPU memory logged every 30 s alongside CPU/memory stats.
  GPU state logged on texture allocation failure for diagnostics.
• Guaranteed no‑black‑screen video architecture — the last‑frame texture
  is fully loaded, uploaded to the GPU, and verified BEFORE VLC is launched.
  See ARCHITECTURE.md → "Video Playback Architecture" for the 8‑step
  state machine diagram.
• VLC RC TCP playback detection — VLC is launched with --extraintf rc --rc‑host localhost:<port> (LUA CLI). is_playing now queries VLC's
  TCP interface for a real "is rendering" signal instead of guessing with
  timers. Supports Pi 2's slow VLC startup without premature swap.
• Centralised timeout configuration — new timeouts section in
  config.json with Config.timeout(key, fallback) helper. All
  critical timeouts (ffprobe, frame extraction, thumbnail generation,
  transcode, VLC start) now editable in one place.

Changed

• GPU memory raised to 128 MB for Pi 2/3 — setup script now detects Pi
  model and sets gpu_mem=128 for Pi ≤3 (static GPU partition needs room
  for framebuffer ~8 MB + pi3d textures ~4 MB each). Pi ≥4 stay at
  gpu_mem=16 (CMA dynamic allocation).
• Timeout increases across the board for CPU‑starved Pi 2/3 hardware:
  ffprobe metadata probe 30→120 s, cached‑video validation 15→60 s,
  thumbnail extraction 120→300 s, first‑frame extract 60→180 s, HW codec
  detection 10→30 s, VLC start 5→30 s.
• Last‑frame swap timer now starts from VLC's confirmed playback time
  (via RC interface), not subprocess launch. Eliminates the swap‑before‑
  VLC‑appears race on slow hardware.

Fixed

• Black last‑frame screen (root cause) — pi3d Texture(file_path) does
  NOT eagerly create the GL texture (opengl_loaded=False). You must
  call tex.load_opengl() followed by glFinish() (ctypes → libGLESv2)
  to drain the VideoCore IV DMA pipeline before pi3d's free_after_load
  releases the CPU buffer. Without the flush, DMA reads freed memory →
  black pixels.
• _load_texture_for_slot unload‑before‑load — the old texture was
  destroyed before the new one was confirmed loaded. If the new load
  failed (GPU memory full), the slot went permanently black. Now loads
  first, only unloads old on success.
• Cache hash mismatch — _cleanup_cached_video used a path‑based
  hash to find frame files, but _extract_video_frames named them with
  a content‑based hash. Frame files were never cleaned up on re‑transcode.
  Both now use the content hash (file_hash).
• Orphaned frame files never deleted — folder watcher's
  _cleanup_cached_for_deleted was missing the .jpg extension when
  looking for {hash}.1.frame files (should be {hash}.1.frame.jpg).
• Thumbnails deleted on cache invalidation — folder watcher cleanup
  was deleting thumbnails alongside cached videos. Thumbnails now survive
  cleanup; they're only ~50 KB and regenerating them on every re‑transcode
  wastes CPU.
• _validate_cached_video crash — still decorated @staticmethod
  after adding self._timeout() call, causing NameError on every
  invocation. All three precached videos silently failed validation and
  never reached the playlist.
• free_after_load kwarg conflict — load_texture() hardcoded
  free_after_load=True while the engine passed free_after_load=False
  via **kwargs, causing TypeError: multiple values. load_texture
  now pops the kwarg to let callers override the default.
• gpu_mem=16 on Pi 3 — the setup script was applying 16 MB GPU
  memory to Pi 3 (which uses a static partition), leaving only 8 MB for
  textures after the framebuffer. Videos rendered as black because the
  GPU couldn't allocate texture memory.
• Keyboard defaults — KEY_UP / KEY_DOWN removed (redundant), KEY_RIGHT
  corrected from prev → next, KEY_SPACE and KEY_POWER removed.
  Defaults now: KEY_LEFT → prev, KEY_RIGHT → next, KEY_ENTER → toggle.

Changed (2026-08-10)

• gpu_mem=128 for all Pi models — setup script simplified: Pi 4/5
  ignore gpu_mem via CMA dynamic allocation, so a single value avoids
  model‑detection complexity and keeps the base image portable across all
  Pi generations.
• requirements-system.txt now complete — lists all 24 apt packages
  from the setup script (grouped by purpose) so the OTA updater can
  install any missing system dependencies after an update.

Added

• Per‑profile CRF field — crf is now a first‑class profile setting
  (Pi 2/3: 28 for software decode, Pi 4/5: 23 for hardware decode).
  Exposed in the API, Web UI profile fields (locked for built‑in profiles,
  editable in Custom mode), and config as transcode_crf.
• Diagnostic logging in needs_optimisation() — every check that
  triggers a transcode now logs exactly which limit was exceeded (codec,
  width, height, fps, bitrate, color depth, HDR, H.264 level) at INFO
  level for easy troubleshooting.
• Workstation precache script — scripts/precache_videos.py
  transcodes videos on a fast desktop using the exact same profile,
  hash, and encoding logic as the Pi, then pushes results via SSH.
  Supports --host to pull media, --push to deploy.
• _VIDEO_WAITING state in the video state machine — the 50 %
  last‑frame swap timer now starts after VLC confirms it has begun
  rendering (MediaPlayerPlaying event), not at launch. Prevents
  black frames when VLC startup is delayed by CPU contention.

Changed

• CRF replaces bitrate‑targeted encoding — Pi 2/3 profiles now use
  -crf 28 (was -b:v 8M ABR). CRF distributes bits intelligently
  across simple and complex scenes, producing more decode‑friendly output
  than constant‑bitrate ABR.
• Pi 2/3 max bitrate lowered from 8 → 7 Mbps for more headroom
  below the ~8 Mbps ARM software decode ceiling.
• FPS always explicit — -r is now always set to
  min(source_fps, max_fps), preventing ffmpeg from silently
  upscaling 23.98 fps → 29.97 fps.
• B‑frames restored — removed -bf 0 from transcode command.
  B‑frames break the P‑frame dependency chain and are actually easier
  to decode in software than a chain of pure P‑frames.
• Max bitrate capped to source quality — -maxrate now uses
  min(source_bitrate, profile_max) so a 5.5 Mbps source never
  gets upscaled to the 7 Mbps profile cap.
• Frame extraction downscaled — thumbnails, first frames, and last
  frames are now downscaled to the display resolution (same as image
  optimisation) instead of being extracted at the source's native 4K
  resolution, saving ~20 MB GPU memory per texture on low‑RAM Pis.
• Frame file extension — .1.frame / .2.frame → .1.frame.jpg /
  .2.frame.jpg for consistency with JPEG content.
• Last‑frame swap at 50 % of video duration (was 20 %, then 80 %)
  — balances VLC startup time with completing before VLC exits.
• Web UI quality slider removed — replaced by the per‑profile CRF
  numeric field in the profile settings section.

Fixed

• H.264 level comparison — ffprobe returns level as integer (40
  for Level 4.0) but the profile stored it as string "4.0", causing
  float(40) > float("4.0") to always be true. Probe now normalises
  to float (40 → 4.0).
• Folder watcher silently dropping videos — ffprobe timeout was
  10 s, too short for a CPU‑starved Pi 2; raised to 120 s.
  Failures now log at WARNING level instead of DEBUG.
• Thumbnail cache deleted on re‑transcode — _cleanup_cached_video
  was deleting thumbnails alongside corrupt cached videos; thumbnails
  now survive cache invalidation.
• Frame extraction throttling reverted — single‑frame extraction
  (thumbnails, first/last frames) now uses nice only (no
  cpulimit) to avoid 120 s timeouts on slow hardware.
• Last‑frame texture load race — the old GPU texture is now kept
  until the new one is confirmed loaded, preventing a black screen if
  the upload fails.
• ffmpeg 8.x compatibility — -vframes ordering (after -i),
  -update 1 as muxer option (after -f image2), -f mjpeg
  for single‑frame output.
• Media route filter — .frame.jpg extension recognised for
  exclusion from media listings.

v1.0.12-beta.5

[1.0.13-beta.6]

Added

• GPU memory introspection — DisplayBackend.gpu_memory_info() and
  flush_gpu() methods. Pi3dBackend reads vcgencmd get_mem and
  DRM bo_stats debugfs for V3D buffer object counts and heap usage.
  Periodic GPU memory logged every 30 s alongside CPU/memory stats.
  GPU state logged on texture allocation failure for diagnostics.
• Guaranteed no‑black‑screen video architecture — the last‑frame texture
  is fully loaded, uploaded to the GPU, and verified BEFORE VLC is launched.
  See ARCHITECTURE.md → "Video Playback Architecture" for the 8‑step
  state machine diagram.
• VLC RC TCP playback detection — VLC is launched with --extraintf rc --rc‑host localhost:<port> (LUA CLI). is_playing now queries VLC's
  TCP interface for a real "is rendering" signal instead of guessing with
  timers. Supports Pi 2's slow VLC startup without premature swap.
• Centralised timeout configuration — new timeouts section in
  config.json with Config.timeout(key, fallback) helper. All
  critical timeouts (ffprobe, frame extraction, thumbnail generation,
  transcode, VLC start) now editable in one place.

Changed

• GPU memory raised to 128 MB for Pi 2/3 — setup script now detects Pi
  model and sets gpu_mem=128 for Pi ≤3 (static GPU partition needs room
  for framebuffer ~8 MB + pi3d textures ~4 MB each). Pi ≥4 stay at
  gpu_mem=16 (CMA dynamic allocation).
• Timeout increases across the board for CPU‑starved Pi 2/3 hardware:
  ffprobe metadata probe 30→120 s, cached‑video validation 15→60 s,
  thumbnail extraction 120→300 s, first‑frame extract 60→180 s, HW codec
  detection 10→30 s, VLC start 5→30 s.
• Last‑frame swap timer now starts from VLC's confirmed playback time
  (via RC interface), not subprocess launch. Eliminates the swap‑before‑
  VLC‑appears race on slow hardware.

Fixed

• Black last‑frame screen (root cause) — pi3d Texture(file_path) does
  NOT eagerly create the GL texture (opengl_loaded=False). You must
  call tex.load_opengl() followed by glFinish() (ctypes → libGLESv2)
  to drain the VideoCore IV DMA pipeline before pi3d's free_after_load
  releases the CPU buffer. Without the flush, DMA reads freed memory →
  black pixels.
• _load_texture_for_slot unload‑before‑load — the old texture was
  destroyed before the new one was confirmed loaded. If the new load
  failed (GPU memory full), the slot went permanently black. Now loads
  first, only unloads old on success.
• Cache hash mismatch — _cleanup_cached_video used a path‑based
  hash to find frame files, but _extract_video_frames named them with
  a content‑based hash. Frame files were never cleaned up on re‑transcode.
  Both now use the content hash (file_hash).
• Orphaned frame files never deleted — folder watcher's
  _cleanup_cached_for_deleted was missing the .jpg extension when
  looking for {hash}.1.frame files (should be {hash}.1.frame.jpg).
• Thumbnails deleted on cache invalidation — folder watcher cleanup
  was deleting thumbnails alongside cached videos. Thumbnails now survive
  cleanup; they're only ~50 KB and regenerating them on every re‑transcode
  wastes CPU.
• _validate_cached_video crash — still decorated @staticmethod
  after adding self._timeout() call, causing NameError on every
  invocation. All three precached videos silently failed validation and
  never reached the playlist.
• free_after_load kwarg conflict — load_texture() hardcoded
  free_after_load=True while the engine passed free_after_load=False
  via **kwargs, causing TypeError: multiple values. load_texture
  now pops the kwarg to let callers override the default.
• gpu_mem=16 on Pi 3 — the setup script was applying 16 MB GPU
  memory to Pi 3 (which uses a static partition), leaving only 8 MB for
  textures after the framebuffer. Videos rendered as black because the
  GPU couldn't allocate texture memory.

v1.0.11-beta.4

[1.0.11-beta.4]

Changed

• Software video decode strategy — Pi 2/3 now use CPU software decode
  (libVLC) instead of GPU hardware decode. gpu_mem returned to
  16 MB (1.0.10-beta.3 briefly raised it to 128) so more RAM is
  available to the ARM cores. Pi 4/5 are unaffected — they continue to
  use hardware decode via rpi-hevc-dec / drm_avcodec.
• Pi 3 transcode bitrate — max_bitrate lowered from 20 →
  8 Mbps, matching the ~8 Mbps software decode ceiling of the
  Cortex‑A53 cores (measured: 5.6 & 7.7 Mbps play smoothly, ≥10.9 Mbps
  drops frames).
• Bitrate‑targeted encoding for Pi 2/3 — profiles with
  bitrate_target: true now use -b:v {max_bitrate}M (target
  average bitrate) instead of -crf. CRF with -maxrate only caps
  peaks — the average can still overshoot by 30–50 %, exceeding the
  software decode ceiling. -b:v produces predictable output at the
  target rate.
• Setup script — gpu_mem=16 for all Pi models, enforced on both
  fresh installs and existing configs regardless of prior value.

Fixed

• Pi 3 choppy video at 10–22 Mbps — CRF‑encoded files for
  14947567 (10.9 Mbps) and 17815074 (21.5 Mbps) regularly
  exceeded the ARM software decode ceiling (~8 Mbps), causing frame
  drops. Bitrate‑targeted encoding reliably produces ≤8 Mbps output.
• Inconsistent gpu_mem on upgraded installs — the 1.0.10-beta.3
  setup script would upgrade gpu_mem to 128 on existing installs;
  now reverted to 16.

v1.0.10-beta.3

[1.0.10-beta.3]

Fixed

• Pi 3 hardware video decode broken by low GPU memory — the setup
  script was setting gpu_mem=16 MB which prevented VideoCore IV from
  loading the H.264 codec firmware, forcing VLC into 100 % CPU software
  decode even with correctly‑transcoded Level 4.0 files. Raised to
  gpu_mem=128 MB for Pi 2/3 (Pi 4/5 use kernel‑managed CMA and don't
  need this).
• Infinite re‑transcode loop on Pi 5 — CRF encoding produced files
  ~3 Mbps above the profile bitrate limit, triggering a re‑transcode on
  every reboot that produced the same overshoot. needs_optimisation()
  now allows 10 % tolerance on bitrate checks.
• Frame‑extraction ffmpeg processes not throttled — first‑frame,
  last‑frame, and thumbnail extraction ran under nice only, ignoring
  the CPU throttle setting. Now uses _wrap_with_throttle() so they
  also get cpulimit when CPU throttling is enabled.
• Missing gpu_mem on Pi 4/5 Trixie images — some images ship
  without any gpu_mem line in config.txt; the setup script now
  adds gpu_mem=128 when the setting is absent.

Changed

• Setup script GPU memory — gpu_mem=128 (was 16) for new
  installs; existing installs are auto‑upgraded from <128 or have
  the setting added if missing entirely

v1.0.9-beta.2

[1.0.9-beta.2]

Added

• USB keyboard / wireless remote input handler — evdev-based listener
  with learn mode for custom key mapping; supports next, prev,
  pause, resume, toggle_pause, screen_on, and
  screen_off commands; mappings persisted in config.json under
  input.keyboard_map
• Keyboard/Remote Control card in Web UI Advanced page — per‑command
  learn and clear buttons with live key‑code display; learn mode polls
  for the next keypress and persists the mapping automatically
• toggle_pause IPC command — single‑key pause/resume toggle for
  keyboard remotes and the Web UI control endpoint; frontend shows a
  brief "Paused" / "Resumed" feedback popup on the frame display
• _show_feedback() helper in the frontend renderer — on‑screen
  popup messages for pause, resume, and toggle_pause actions using the
  existing message layer
• OTA system package support — new requirements-system.txt lists
  required system packages (python3-evdev); UpdateManager
  installs any missing packages before the pip step during OTA updates
• input config section — keyboard_enabled toggle and
  keyboard_map dictionary for storing learned key bindings

Changed

• Web UI polling — dashboard.js switched from setInterval to
  setTimeout chains for dashboard refresh, sync status, log viewer,
  and processing progress; prevents request‑queue buildup when the
  browser tab is backgrounded on mobile
• screen_on / screen_off renamed — display power commands
  renamed from legacy names across all input handlers (CEC, IR,
  keyboard, MQTT), IPC protocol, frontend renderer, and the Web UI
  control endpoint for consistent naming
• Pi 3 H.264 Level lowered — h264_level reduced from 4.2 to
  4.0 in the Pi 3 transcoding profile to stay within VideoCore IV
  hardware decode limits (max Level 4.1)
• Keyboard handler thread — started by the backend daemon alongside
  other input handlers; uses selectors‑based blocking I/O instead of
  busy‑polling so CPU usage is near‑zero when no keys are pressed

Fixed

• Pi 3 video stuttering / 100 % CPU — videos transcoded at H.264
  Level 4.2 exceeded VideoCore IV hardware decoder capabilities, causing
  VLC to fall back to software decode on all 4 cores; re‑transcoding at
  Level 4.0 enables hardware decode (~5–10 % CPU)
• Keyboard learn clear button — clearing a key mapping via the Web UI
  now properly removes the defaults for that command instead of wiping
  all default key bindings; set_key_map() merges config overrides
  with defaults, treating an empty list as "clear this command"

v1.0.8-beta.1

[1.0.8-beta.8]

Added

• Transcoding profiles — four Pi‑model‑specific profiles (Pi 2, Pi 3,
  Pi 4, Pi 5) with optimal codec, resolution, framerate, bitrate, H.264
  profile/level, colour depth, and HDR support limits. Profile is
  auto‑detected on first run from /proc/device-tree/model.
• Custom profile mode — allows overriding every transcode parameter
  individually; all profile fields visible in the Web UI, editable only
  when Custom is selected
• Keep Audio global setting — preserves the audio track when enabled
  (stripped by default)
• Profile‑based cached‑video re‑validation — switching profiles
  re‑probes existing cached videos and re‑transcodes any that exceed the
  new limits
• Extended video metadata extraction — ffprobe now captures framerate,
  bitrate, colour depth, H.264 profile/level, and HDR colour info
• Profile‑based optimisation gating — needs_optimisation() checks
  all profile limits (codec, resolution, fps, bitrate, colour depth, HDR,
  H.264 level) instead of only H.264 + resolution
• Web UI Video Optimisation card — profile dropdown with auto‑detect,
  custom parameter fields, keep‑audio checkbox, and global quality/encoder/
  timeout/CPU‑limit controls

Changed

• Transcode encodes to profile target codec — Pi 4/5 target H.265
  (HEVC) for hardware decode; Pi 2/3 target H.264
• Transcode enforces H.264 level/profile — adds -level,
  -profile:v, -refs 2, -bf 0, -g 30 for smooth Pi
  playback
• Transcode framerate cap — -r only applied when source FPS
  exceeds the profile limit; never upscales 30 fps → 60 fps
• Transcode colour depth cap — output depth is min(src, profile);
  never upscales 8‑bit → 10‑bit
• Transcode HDR → SDR downgrade — forces BT.709 colour space on
  non‑HDR‑capable Pi models
• Transcode max bitrate enforcement — -maxrate + -bufsize
  applied from profile limits
• libx265 RAM optimisation — uses ultrafast preset on ≤3 GB
  devices (Pi 4/5 with 2 GB) to avoid OOM; superfast on >3 GB
• CPU throttle default — reduced from 200 % to 100 % (1 core)
• Playlist hot‑reload refreshes metadata — frontend now updates
  width, height, first_frame_path, last_frame_path, and
  cached_path for existing items when the backend updates the
  playlist, fixing aspect‑ratio mismatches and black frame glitches after
  re‑transcode

Fixed

• Next‑item video playback — pressing Next to a video now launches VLC
  immediately instead of sitting on the first frame until the slide timer
  expires
• config.example.json video defaults — playback_enabled
  corrected to true, max_duration_seconds to 0, CPU throttle
  to 100

v1.0.7

Image Download Links Below

• Instructions
• IMG can be used for Raspberry Pi 3+
• For Raspberry Pi 2, follow the manual installation instructions as Trixie 13 Lite 32-bit is required

[1.0.7]

Fixed

• Welcome messages not auto-dismissing — the message layer timer was
  being reset every frame while a video played, preventing the 2‑minute
  auto-dismiss from ever firing; now tracks accumulated visible time with
  proper pause/resume during video playback
• Web UI welcome dismiss not clearing on‑screen messages — dismissing
  the welcome banner in the dashboard now sends dismiss_all_messages
  IPC to the frontend so the frame display popups disappear immediately
• config.example.json video defaults — playback_enabled
  corrected from false to true and max_duration_seconds from
  120 to 0 (unlimited), matching the Python defaults

Added

• User Guide — new docs/USER_GUIDE.md covering first‑time setup,
  getting online, adding media, the dashboard, customisation, updates, and
  troubleshooting

v1.0.6

Image Download Links Below

• Instructions
• IMG can be used for Raspberry Pi 3+
• For Raspberry Pi 2, follow the manual installation instructions as Trixie 13 Lite 32-bit is required

Key Fixes

• Fixed WiFi, Captive Portal and Access Point issues.

Change Log

[1.0.5-beta.5]

Added

• Pi 2 / Ethernet-only support — is_wifi_hardware_present() check prevents the controller from attempting AP activation on devices without WiFi hardware; the controller stays in CLIENT_CONNECTED or CLIENT_DISCONNECTED based on Ethernet state and never retries AP
• Stale AP cleanup on boot — the controller now kills any leftover hostapd instance on initialisation, preventing the captive portal from blocking the web dashboard after an unclean shutdown

Changed

• AP startup delay eliminated — removed the daemon's forced ap_timeout_seconds wait on boot; the controller now owns all timing (immediate AP when no saved networks, 5‑minute grace period when saved WiFi exists)
• Boot screen message timing — 10 s delay after slideshow start ensures the boot screen fade-out completes before welcome or PIN messages appear
• Setup script prompts before install — channel and WiFi country questions are now asked before git is installed; answers flow through to Phase 1 via environment variables so the user is never re‑prompted
• Beta channel pins to pre-release tags — the setup script now checks out the latest v*-beta.* tag on main for beta channel installs instead of tracking the dev branch, matching the OTA updater's behaviour

Fixed

• Captive portal blocking dashboard after reboot — hostapd left running from a previous AP session is now stopped at controller init

[1.0.4-beta.4]

Added

• WiFi connection failed popup — when the captive portal WiFi connection fails (wrong password, out of range, etc.), an error message now appears on the photo frame display with guidance to check the password or try a different network (30 s auto-dismiss)
• WiFi connection profile fallback — if the one-shot nmcli device wifi connect fails with a "key-mgmt property is missing" error (common on routers with mixed WPA2/WPA3 or certain TP-Link/ASUS models), the code now creates an explicit connection profile with WPA2-PSK settings and retries automatically
• Setup script channel prompt — asks for stable or beta channel before installing; stable pins to the latest non-prerelease v* tag, beta tracks the dev branch
• Setup script WiFi country prompt — asks for the regulatory domain (e.g. AU, US, GB) upfront alongside the channel choice; both answers are written to config.json for the Web UI

Changed

• Boot welcome delay eliminated — the network monitor no longer waits ap_timeout_seconds when a network is already connected at boot; the welcome message appears as soon as the slideshow is ready instead of 60+ seconds later
• Captive portal error messaging — the WiFi failure popup on the frame display uses a single clean message instead of concatenating the raw nmcli error with boilerplate text

Fixed

• Setup script CRLF line endings — .gitattributes now enforces eol=lf for *.sh files; the setup script was renormalized so it runs correctly when downloaded from GitHub raw on a Pi

[1.0.3-beta.3]

Changed

• Network Controller rewritten — NetworkPhase flag-based state machine replaced with NetworkState enum (CLIENT_CONNECTED, CLIENT_DISCONNECTED, AP_ACTIVE, AP_EXHAUSTED); all transitions go through a single _transition_to() method under lock; monitor loop drains a pending-actions queue instead of comparing phase snapshots. Ethernet connectivity is checked independently from WiFi and is always safe (different radio) — nmcli is never queried for WiFi while the AP is active, preventing hostapd beacon disruption.
• WiFi connection deferred to background thread — the captive portal's /api/network/connect endpoint now returns a response immediately (before the AP is torn down) and spawns a background thread for the actual AP-stop + scan + nmcli-connect sequence. The phone receives the HTTP response while still associated with the AP.
• WiFi scan delay after AP stop — connect_to_network() now performs a nmcli device wifi rescan and waits 5 s after stopping the AP before attempting the connection. Without a fresh scan wlan0 has no visible SSID list and nmcli fails with "No network with SSID 'X' found."
• Controller connection guard — new begin_connection() / end_connection() methods prevent the monitor thread from treating an intentionally-stopped AP as "unexpectedly dead" during the scan gap
• AP_EXHAUSTED sudo reduction — _stop_ap() now guarded by is_ap_mode_active() check; no longer runs unnecessary sudo commands on every monitor tick when the AP is already down

Fixed

• WiFi connection failing after captive portal — the AP was torn down during the HTTP request, severing the client's TCP connection before the response arrived; the phone showed a network error instead of success
• "WiFi Offline" popup flashing during WiFi connection — the monitor tick saw the AP was down during the scan delay and marked it as AP_EXHAUSTED, triggering an on-screen warning that was dismissed seconds later when the connection succeeded
• Captive portal error messages removed — the password field no longer displays error text on failure; all feedback is shown on the photo frame display where it is always visible even after the phone disconnects from the AP

Removed

• Legacy PIN state — _pin_state module-level dict and all legacy PIN functions (generate_ap_pin, clear_ap_pin, validate_ap_pin, is_pin_required, get_active_pin) removed from network_manager.py; PIN management is now exclusively owned by NetworkController with proper thread safety
• SCAN_CACHE_TTL constant and force_live parameter — scan cache is now served indefinitely while the AP is active; live scan toggle no longer exposed to the web API
• Legacy PIN fallbacks in web routes — all is_pin_required() and validate_ap_pin() fallback paths removed; the controller is the sole source of truth

[1.0.2-beta.2]

Added

• CPU temperature tile — sparkline graph on the System Status dashboard card using vcgencmd measure_temp; scaled 0–85°C in red
• libopenblas0 added to setup script package list — resolves NumPy import failures on Pi 2 (32-bit) where the shared library was missing
• Hardware documentation — separated Models table from RAM Requirements table in README; added 64‑bit vs 32‑bit image availability per model; Pi 4 promoted to Phase 1 (untested); Pi Zero 2 W marked as untested

Changed

• Video transcode CPU limit default — reduced from 300 % to 200 %
• Pause button — switched from Unicode characters (⏸/▶) to Material Symbols icons (pause / play_arrow) for consistent rendering
• Progress bar colours — optimising images and transcoding bars now use var(--primary) (theme red), matching the scanning bar
• WiFi Country Code — hint text repositioned below the input field using form-group--stack layout
• Connected button — vertically centered in network list rows via display:inline-flex;align-items:center
• Background processing bars — hidden when their respective feature is disabled (image optimisation off → hide optimising bar; video transcoding off → hide transcoding bar)
• README — hardware section restructured with separate Supported Models and RAM Requirements tables; Pi 2 marked active (32-bit manual install); Pi 4 marked untested; Pi Zero 2 W marked untested

Fixed

• Pipeline reset on sync changes — enabling/disabling local watch folders now triggers a full pipeline reset ("sync" re‑added to the config route trigger list)
• Hardware docs consistency — CLAUDE.md, HARDWARE.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, GETTING_STARTED.md, INSTALLATION.md, and FEATURES.md updated to match README hardware tables (Pi 4 in Phase 1, Pi Zero 2 W untested, 32‑bit vs 64‑bit, manual install notes)

[1.0.1-beta.1]

Added

• first_frame_path and last_frame_path fields on MediaItem — backend-generated video frame caches referenced directly by the presentation engine
• VideoProcessor._extract_video_frames() — extracts first frame (t=0) and last frame (sseof) during Phase 2 OPTIMISE; cached as .1.frame / .2.frame JPEGs
• Image optimisation worker subprocess (worker.py) — PIL operations (load, transpose, resize, save) run in an isolated process with cpulimit -l 50 (hard 50 % CPU cap) and nice -n 19 (lowest priority); OS reclaims all memory on exit
• Adaptive CPU throttling — sleep between image optimisations scales with 1‑minute load average (load1 × 0.2, capped at 1.0 s); folder watcher also yields between thumbnail generations when the optimiser is busy
• Boot screen progress bar — red fill bar below the spinner showing optimisation progress (1/6 → 6/6); uses draw_image with 1×1 pixel textures to avoid pi3d colour-space issues
• Per‑phase progress bars in the Web UI Background Processing card — separate persistent bars for scanning, image optimisation, and video transcoding; each retains its last position when the active phase switches
• Frontend→backend slideshow‑started signal — POST /api/slideshow-started defers the network monitor's AP‑fallback countdown until the first sl...

v1.0.5-beta.5

[1.0.5-beta.5]

Added

• Pi 2 / Ethernet-only support — is_wifi_hardware_present() check
  prevents the controller from attempting AP activation on devices without
  WiFi hardware; the controller stays in CLIENT_CONNECTED or
  CLIENT_DISCONNECTED based on Ethernet state and never retries AP
• Stale AP cleanup on boot — the controller now kills any leftover
  hostapd instance on initialisation, preventing the captive portal from
  blocking the web dashboard after an unclean shutdown

Changed

• AP startup delay eliminated — removed the daemon's forced
  ap_timeout_seconds wait on boot; the controller now owns all timing
  (immediate AP when no saved networks, 5‑minute grace period when saved
  WiFi exists)
• Boot screen message timing — 10 s delay after slideshow start ensures
  the boot screen fade-out completes before welcome or PIN messages appear
• Setup script prompts before install — channel and WiFi country
  questions are now asked before git is installed; answers flow through
  to Phase 1 via environment variables so the user is never re‑prompted
• Beta channel pins to pre-release tags — the setup script now checks
  out the latest v*-beta.* tag on main for beta channel installs
  instead of tracking the dev branch, matching the OTA updater's
  behaviour

Fixed

• Captive portal blocking dashboard after reboot — hostapd left running
  from a previous AP session is now stopped at controller init

v1.0.4-beta.4

[1.0.4-beta.4]

Added

• WiFi connection failed popup — when the captive portal WiFi connection
  fails (wrong password, out of range, etc.), an error message now appears on
  the photo frame display with guidance to check the password or try a
  different network (30 s auto-dismiss)
• WiFi connection profile fallback — if the one-shot nmcli device wifi connect fails with a "key-mgmt property is missing" error (common on
  routers with mixed WPA2/WPA3 or certain TP-Link/ASUS models), the code
  now creates an explicit connection profile with WPA2-PSK settings and
  retries automatically
• Setup script channel prompt — asks for stable or beta channel
  before installing; stable pins to the latest non-prerelease v* tag,
  beta tracks the dev branch
• Setup script WiFi country prompt — asks for the regulatory domain
  (e.g. AU, US, GB) upfront alongside the channel choice; both
  answers are written to config.json for the Web UI

Changed

• Boot welcome delay eliminated — the network monitor no longer waits
  ap_timeout_seconds when a network is already connected at boot; the
  welcome message appears as soon as the slideshow is ready instead of
  60+ seconds later
• Captive portal error messaging — the WiFi failure popup on the frame
  display uses a single clean message instead of concatenating the raw
  nmcli error with boilerplate text

Fixed

• Setup script CRLF line endings — .gitattributes now enforces
  eol=lf for *.sh files; the setup script was renormalized so it
  runs correctly when downloaded from GitHub raw on a Pi