How to open and close omxplayer (Python/Raspberry Pi) while playing video?

Question

Using a Raspberry Pi and some push buttons I want to control video playback. When someone presses a button the corresponding video plays. The buttons work great. When you pr

Answer 1

NameError: global name 'playDodgeballs' is not defined means that you are trying to use playDodgeballs before it is defined playDodgeballs = ...

I would simplify your code by removing all globals and threads. subprocess.Popen runs a separate process; it doesn't block your main thread:

names = 'sippycup', 'dodgeballs', 'shoppingcart'
movies = ['Desktop/videos/{name}.mp4'.format(name=name) for name in names]
players = [Player(movie=movie) for movie in movies]
player = players[0]

setup_io() # GPIO setup
while True:
    for key in get_key_events(): # get GPIO input
        if key == '0':
           player = players[0]
        elif key == 'space':
           player.toggle() # pause/unpause
        elif key == 'enter':
           player.start()
        ...

where Player is a simple wrapper around omxplayer subprocess:

import logging
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, DEVNULL

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class Player:
    def __init__(self, movie):
       self.movie = movie
       self.process = None

    def start(self):
        self.stop()
        self.process = Popen(['omxplayer', self.movie], stdin=PIPE,
                             stdout=DEVNULL, close_fds=True, bufsize=0)
        self.process.stdin.write(start_command) # start playing

    def stop(self):
        p = self.process
        if p is not None:
           try:
               p.stdin.write(quit_command) # send quit command
               p.terminate()
               p.wait() # -> move into background thread if necessary
           except EnvironmentError as e:
               logger.error("can't stop %s: %s", self.movie, e)
           else:
               self.process = None

    def toggle(self):
        p = self.process
        if p is not None:
           try:
               p.stdin.write(toggle_command) # pause/unpause
           except EnvironmentError as e:
               logger.warning("can't toggle %s: %s", self.movie, e)

Specify appropriate start_command, quit_command, toggle_command. You could define different methods depending on what commands omxplayer understands and what commands you need.